“You know what this means, right?” Ranger asks, the sound of his deep, angry voice rumbling through his body and into mine. If I'd been confused before about, what, exactly, our relationship was supposed to be, well, then, this clarifies a lot. I squeeze him a little tighter.
“It means we still don't know shit?” Spencer questions, and I hear the old pages rustle as, presumably, he takes them to look at. “So, we're supposed to believe there's a cult on this campus, preying on students?”
“It's fucking ridiculous,” Ranger says, but when he finally lets go of me, and I peek around to get a look at his face, I can see that he's buried deep in his own thoughts. “But why would Jenica lie in her own journal? It was for her eyes only. There's nothing but harsh truths and sad realities in there.” Ranger removes the boiling mixture from the hot burner, scooting it over to a cool one and putting the whisk in my hand, hot fingers caressing my skin as his eyes make startling contact with mine, sending a sharp thrill from my head down to my toes. “Keep stirring, don't let it burn.” He switches over to a glass bowl with the egg whites in it, whipping them with strong, hard beats of his arms. He doesn't even bother to grab an electric mixture. I appreciate the dedication—and the view. “Did you see her mention my dad?” More whipping, the clink, clink, clink of the whisk against the side of the glass bowl speeding up in both intensity and volume. “That piece of shit.”
“Your father was involved, clearly,” Church begins, moving around to the opposite side of the island, so he can look at his best friend. His face is cold and dark, that seriousness that used to scare me so much rising to the surface. After meeting his family, though, it all makes a lot more sense. They're ruthless in business, ruthless in protecting the ones they love, but they're not evil or psychopathic or anything else. My heart thumps hard and I look back down at the bubbling yellow mixture in the saucepan. “So, what do you want to do?”
Ranger starts gradually adding sugar to the egg whites, turning the mixture into a peaked foam that'll sit pretty on top of the pie when it's done. The oven dings, and I scramble to slip on a pair of oven mitts in the shape of pink bear paws, flinging it open and removing the pastry shell Ranger started before it gets burned. Carefully, I pour the pie mixture into the shell, and Ranger steps close to spread the meringue across the top.
The twins and Spencer move around to stand beside Church, four gorgeous boys in matching uniforms that make my heart pitter-patter, all waiting to see what Ranger's going to say, how he wants us to proceed.
“I want you all to get out,” he says carefully, watching like a hawk as I take the pie in my mittened hands and put it carefully back into the oven. He nods once, satisfied that I've at least learned something out of my time with the Culinary Club. Last time he let me grab an unfinished pie like this, I dropped it and spattered cherry filling on everyone.
“You want us to leave?” the twins ask in unison, exchanging a look.
“If you need space, that's under—” I start, when Ranger grabs me around the wrist and yanks me toward him, looking down at my face with a searing heat that has my throat closing up and my pulse pounding. Uh-oh. That's not a good look, not a good look at all.
“Out,” Ranger repeats, holding me close and giving the other boys one of his signature glares. “You can wait in the hall, if you want.”
“Wait in the hall for what?” I choke out as Spencer sighs and rakes the fingers of both hands through his hair.
“Five for five,” he murmurs under his breath, giving me a look that says good luck, Chuck. “I'd rather you guys didn't get murdered on the way back to the dorms, so we'll wait. Just don't take too long.”
“Don't take too short either,” Micah says with a bit of a smirk, excusing himself into the hallway. Tobias lags behind slightly, giving me a smile and then pulling out a handful of condoms from his pocket. He leaves them on the counter as the color drains from my face.
“Text me when you're ready for us to pick you up. We'll be in the library.” Church moves toward the door, pausing just once to look back at us with amber eyes and a bright smile. “If you don't check in with me after an hour, I'm coming up to get you both.”
“Might be longer than an hour,” Ranger says as Church grins and then slips fully out the door, closing it behind him, and then locking it from the outside with the key. Slowly, carefully, I look up at Ranger, finding all of that dark anger locked into a fairly intimidating facial expression. He's not as scary as he looks though, cute-stuff-loving Ranger.
